How to find voice-over work from home

From the perspective of freelancers, entering the voiceover industry is far easier now than ever before. Because the technologies have advanced and became available to the masses for very low cost, you should have no issue finding voiceover work from home. 

To find VO work from home take these actions:

1. Register on Freelance Services Marketplaces
2. Subscribe for Pay-to-Play sites
3. Record audiobooks on ACX
4. Get on talent agencies roster
5. Reach out to the companies directly 
6. Create your portfolio on the website
7. Find the clients’ through social media

Let’s go into more in-depth on each of them.

Firstly, we need to find out if there are a good amount of voice-over jobs out there? And the answer is yes, a tremendous amount! And the number is growing, see the statistics and trends.

Register on Freelance Services Marketplaces

Most of the time, new freelancers offer their services and find customers on the Internet freelancing portals. Those portals are the marketplaces where the customers find sellers of the services they need; like logo design, video production, programming, or voiceover. 

Among many such marketplaces are few stand out being well known to the masses as the place-to-go to hire voiceover talents. The best examples would be Fiverr and Upwork. Those are the biggest Freelancing platforms with every year grow. And they are free to use, what is most important for the beginner voiceover freelancers. Besides, there are also free-to-play website platforms specifically for voiceover jobs Voice123.com and Voices.com are examples of such. 

Typically new talents register on free voiceover marketplaces to get started working with first clients. There they prove to themselves there is a demand, and they able to deliver quality voiceover. It is better to come prepared and know how to start right with freelancing.

The step-by-step strategy on how to start making money from home with voiceover 

After gaining enough confidence and seeing a return on investment spent on equipment, many choose to expand to paid-to-play sites, which are discussed right below.

Subscribe for Pay-to-Play sites

With some voiceover experience and available money to invest, you can consider joining the most popular places in the Pay-to-Play pool of sites Voices.com and Voice123.com. There you pay a monthly or annual fee to have access to auditions.

You may find there more corporate orders than on the general or low-cost freelancer portals. While premium accounts on many of these sites cost hundreds of dollars, they also offer basic free accounts with very limited functionality. 

Such accounts stripped of ability actively participate in auditions; however, you still can be discovered by a customer if they search through the database of voice talents. Having said that, it is worthwhile to get a free account because it serves you as a passive asset, and you can get jobs through it too.

You get a better idea on which sites to use and how after reading Top websites to find voice-over work

Record audiobooks on ACX

Recording audiobooks for publishers deserve a stand-alone topic from the other voice-over marketplace websites. And the best place to get audiobook recording work is ACX. 

ACX is an online marketplace to bring narrators, producers, publishers, authors together to create more audiobooks. It belongs to Audible, which owned by Amazon, and Amazon has a lion share of the growing audiobook market. 

ACX is free to use. And voiceover freelancers will find it very easy to use as it works similar to the other marketplaces on the Internet. Narrating audiobooks can be very lucrative because the books are much longer than scripts for commercials. We are looking here to thousands or tens of thousands of words compared to a few dozen sentences at max.

I would recommend gaining some experience and mastering audio production prior to getting onto audiobooks narration. ACX specifically requires high audio standard output, and their quality team is very specific on what they accept. I go into deeper detail about it in How to record audiobooks for audible from home.

Where else can you find audiobook work? 

Penguin Random House Audio Publishing definitely worse your attention. They have their own online talent database where you can create your profile, upload your finest audio demos.

The other notable audiobook publishers are oasis audio, recorded books, harper audio, graphic audio.

Many audiobook publishers do not maintain an online database of audiobook narrators, but you still can search them on Google and contact them directly. Ask if they are accepting demos from VO talent. 

Get on talent agencies roster

Back in a day’s agencies and agents were the only options for voice talents to advance in their careers. The agencies were holding chest-close lists of clients which voice talent couldn’t have reached. 

Today the situation has changed with open data available through the Internet. Many clients are able directly to find the voices they need and vise versa. Even the number of clients going through the agents declined, they still exist. 

The agencies survive on more prominent clients who still prefer to do business with fewer entities and more reliable partners. Multimedia agencies are serving better this purpose compared to the bulk of voice talents and other folks required for the project. So the bigger companies prefer agencies to deliver completed service for them.

From a voice talent point of view, working for an agency is a chance to be discovered by big brands earlier than if they would stay only on freelancer marketplaces.

Just a reminder, you can expect to compete with the best of the best when you go for an agency audition.

Reach out to the companies directly 

The best clients are returning clients. It is easier to get another order from an existing client than find a new client. And the companies and specifically commercial production companies are the most likely to have multiple voiceover jobs for you. They can have you on a roster or put you in touch with the recording studio to work for them.

Think of companies as of big-name clients. Before you could’ve got in touch with them only through the agent. Now using the Internet, you can get in touch with them without agency. 

The commercial companies, studios, radio stations can be contacted in many ways. I am pretty sure they have production teams internal or outsourced. 

Ask them if they accept voiceover demos. And if so they put you in touch with the right people. It is a number game, and many won’t respond to your messages. Contact them anyways and keep track of contact. It may be a timing issue so they do not need someone right now.

You can repeat the request every six months or so if you haven’t heard from them. Keep coming back to them, remain in touch, and stay top of their mind.

Feel free to market yourself to as many media production companies as possible.

Create your portfolio on the website

What is great about your website is you own it. This means that if the platform you selling your services goes away, your portfolio and credibility won’t disappear with it.

The website is not something you must have right from the start of your voiceover career. You can wait until you complete enough projects so you can show a diverse portfolio from different clients.

Diversify your portfolio, showcase what you are good at, and share best works on your website. Use website URL or relevant hashtag on social networks, email signatures, and where it is appropriate as passive marketing. That will add credibility to you and can convince more clients to work with you.

Find the clients’ through social media

If you are actively searching for new clients, it is a good idea to visit their pages on social networks. There are commonly known social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Most of the businesses have their profiles out there. 

But companies don’t do business on general-purpose social networks; they use it to inform and interact with the crowd. It doesn’t mean you should ignore those websites networks; just don’t expect jobs negotiated through these channels. Mostly it serves the purpose of staying in touch.

I would recommend using LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a professional website where people are sharing their skills and career achievements, and businesses present their values and search for the right people to hire.

If you haven’t yet, it is time to start your profile on LinkedIn. Build it as you go, share your achievements and winning moments, and grow your connections circle steadily. Find and start following the companies and agencies. 

Get inspired by the companies mentioned in this article, add local radio stations, and multimedia companies. Use the same approach as when reaching companies directly. Contact them through the chat, email, or phone asking if they are accepting voice-over demos. In a worse case, they will say no, thank you, but some will put you in touch with the right people to audition your skills.

Conclusion

Nowadays, it is easy to become a voice talent, and it is also easy to become a customer. The cost of technologies has decreased, and Internet outreach wiped out limitations and obstacles. 

Now people can cooperate between cities, countries, and continents. Many new entrepreneurs, smaller businesses, YouTubers, raising the volume of demand for voice-over talents. They in need of diverse talents to stand out and be distinguished from each other.

Now you know the ways and channels where to meet them. Are you interested in learning how to get jobs from them? Then join the course Freelance Blueprint To Voice-Over

There you will find guides, advice, and tactics on finding clients and delivering excellent work, so they come back to you again for the next order.